Carriers have been ordering a growing share of new vessel capacity as dual-fuel ships — able to run on conventional marine fuel oil as well as methanol or LNG — positioning their fleets for the eventual tightening of carbon rules discussed elsewhere in this series, whether driven by the EU's regional rules now or a global IMO framework eventually. Maersk has been among the most visible early adopters of methanol dual-fuel newbuilds specifically.
In practice, most of these vessels currently run on conventional fuel most of the time, because green methanol and bio-LNG supply remains limited and expensive relative to standard bunker fuel — the dual-fuel capability is as much a hedge against future fuel availability and regulation as it is a current operational choice.
For a shipper, this transition is mostly invisible at the booking level today — a dual-fuel vessel moves your cargo the same way a conventional vessel does, on the same schedule, generally at the same rate, since fuel-flexibility has not yet translated into widespread differentiated pricing for cargo owners.
Where it may start to matter is for shippers with genuine emissions-reduction commitments who specifically want cargo moved on lower-carbon fuel when available — a request we can sometimes accommodate on specific carrier services, though actual green-fuel-powered voyages remain a minority of total sailings today given the fuel supply constraint.